CD Details

Number of Discs: 2

Released: August 1, 2000

Originally Released: 2000

Label: Sony

Entertainment Reviews:

Alternative Press - 11/00, pp.104-6

5 out of 5 - "...Essential....the overlooked classic of psychedelic soul and outlandish improv....representing the high water mark of his experiments in the fusion of rock, funk, electronica and jazz..."

By 1974, Miles Davis had become not only a music legend in general and a jazz legend in particular, but also a reclusive and confounding character. Davis' music had excited many and exasperated others, including many of his older fans, with its forays into space-age free-form meta-funk. Released in 1974 but unavailable on CD in the US until 2000, GET UP WITH IT is a compendium of several of Miles's early-to-mid-'70s studio adventures, and one of the most challenging albums in his catalog.

His tribute to Duke Ellington, "He Loved Him Madly," is a darkly intense, 30-minute-plus exercise evoking the dense textures of such contemporary classical composers as Paul Schutze and Georgy Ligeti. "Red China Blues," a wry homage of sorts to Chicago blues, features some stinging trumpet by Davis and some earnest blues harmonica. The 2-CD GET UP WITH IT is a collection of feverish, dense textures and deep grooves, which range from sensual, to bereaved, to confrontational, and features the outstanding players with whom Davis surrounded himself during this period. Fans of electric Miles Davis will find this a must-have, displaying as it does Davis's anticipation of much of the music of the '90s and beyond.